There were lockdowns and restrictions, as well as stories of friends being trapped in their offices for 48 hours awaiting mass testing. Now, five days after the last lockdown, Vicky, who prefers not to disclose her last name, finds herself doing something completely unexpected: she tries to convince a friend’s rescue dog, Moka, that it is okay to go to the bathroom inside in her apartment. “Right now he’s staring at me with sad ‘why don’t we go out?’ “I do not know how to explain it to her,” Vicky told Al Jazeera via Skype. “So far, I’ve just tried to tell her that if you’re making cocoa on the floor, I’ll not be angry with you, and two, if you’re peeing and taking a bath is okay, I’ll just put it down. That’s not a big deal. “ The solution is just one of many adopted by Shanghai’s 26 million people as they are confined to their homes due to an increase in Omicron cases. According to the latest lockdown, they are not allowed to leave their homes for any reason other than to be tested for the virus and depend on city officials for food and basic supplies. A viral video showed some Shanghai residents dropping a dog out of a window into a mixed-use area, while another showed a group of aliens on a rooftop trying to make the most of Shanghai’s spring sun. Vicky is locked in her one-bedroom apartment with her cats and Mocha, a friend dog who recently tested positive for COVID-19 [Courtesy of Vicky] Twitter posts by Shanghai residents posted via VPN – necessary to circumvent China’s ban on Twitter – document empty streets, hazmat workers, mass trials and sometimes questionable state food deliveries of everyday life. Shanghai reported 311 new cases and more than 16,000 asymptomatic infections on April 5, the local government said on Wednesday, with the two meters higher than the previous day. The wave has been described as China’s worst since COVID-19 first broke out in Wuhan in late 2019. The Chinese government says it has also sent 38,000 health workers from across the country to help. in a massive effort to test the entire population. according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Another 2,000 military doctors have also been sent to help. Originally designed as a “tiered lockdown” to keep China’s most important commercial and economic city half-closed, the lockdown in Shanghai has been extended to an unknown date as government officials review the results of tests across the city, according to state media. The lockdown measures were initially supposed to have ended in the early morning hours of April 5th.
“Incredibly optimistic”
Residents like Vicky living in western Shanghai have only been left home since April 1, but those in the east of the city have been living under lockdown since March 28. Vicky told Al Jazeera she has about “three days” to eat, but blames herself. Like many young Taiwanese, Vicky does not cook and says she made the deliberate decision not to buy pots and pans when she moved into her apartment. Prior to the lockdown, he provided instant noodles, fruit and multivitamins to supplement some of the canned food he had, but now admits he was “extremely optimistic”. Residents of Shanghai Closed Town walk their dogs like this pic.twitter.com/R6TQ3UgrES – News monitoring (@MuYangLee_XWKD) March 31, 2022 Vicky’s neighborhood committee recently left a “huge” bag of vegetables, she says, but she’s not quite sure how to prepare them. “If I’m really desperate, I can probably cut the cucumbers to make a salad,” he said. The microwave, he added, could be another option if things get awful. While Vicky was able to get the lockdown at high speed, she is still aware that as a resident of the luxurious Jing’An district, she can work from home, giving her an edge over undocumented residents and workers living in other parts of the city. “I am just lucky. “I have a nice one-bedroom apartment in a downtown area,” he said. “You would not think that your neighborhood would be very important in a lockdown, but it is, because if you are in a nicer neighborhood, you have better communication, you have better resources. I got the free vegetables that the city gave me first of all “. However, she has her concerns. Moka, the rescue dog, is one of the friends who tested positive for COVID-19 – they had agreed that they would take care of each other’s pets if they were quarantined, as all those who test positive are required to do. People in Shanghai are now under indefinite lockdown after city authorities first sealed neighborhoods east and west of the city. [Alex Plavevski/EPA] The Chinese internet, however, has scary stories of health workers killing the pets of quarantined patients who tested positive for the coronavirus. Early lockdowns in China in 2020 were also accompanied by stories of neighbors invading each other’s apartments to rescue pets whose owners were suddenly trapped elsewhere or quarantined. The nerves of other Shanghai residents are also fraying, Vicky says, as the Chinese government insists on a tough “Covid Zero” approach.
“Horror” stories about COVID
In 2020, many residents were happy to follow the rules and stay alert, but now Vicky says she sees a lot of complaints and sharing “horror stories” with clickbait. There is also anger about the separation of children and parents if one or the other tests positive. WeChat Moments recently made the rounds of a report calling for asymptomatic patients to be isolated at home instead of facing a government quarantine center. A foreign couple broke the Great Firewall that keeps China isolated from the rest of the world to tweet about their experience at such a center, giving it a low rating due to shared rooms and – temporarily – broken toilets. So, it happened. I had #COVID in #Shanghai. I’m waiting for the CDC to take me to the hospital and @LeaningEmma to the central quarantine – our life for the next three weeks ☹️ – Shane Leaning (@leaningshane) March 23, 2022 For Vicky, there is no easy answer to the lockdown debate. Her father lived with a weakened immune system before he died several years ago, so he understands the need to protect the most vulnerable. The unknown question, however, is how far the rules must go. “I am very divided. I do not understand [why] people have no compassion for [immune compromised] “I also do not understand the people who enforce the rules to the point of ignoring basic human needs and prosperity,” he said. For now, however, she said she is ready to take out an emergency Lego stock or maybe try one of the 50 yuan ($ 7.86) classes at her gym that are broadcast live as she awaits another meal delivery. He has also made plans with friends to take turns reading Alice in Wonderland during a three-hour marathon video chat. “I think it will be mentally difficult, but we are two years into the pandemic, which means that everyone is well equipped to host online events,” he said, adding that the arrangement was fine for now. “It will be OK.”
